Drill press operations require precise positioning of a workpiece to enable drilling in the desired locations. The workpiece must be clamped or fastened in place during drilling to prevent slippage of the workpiece from the precise position necessary to permit the hole to be drilled in the desired location. In addition, the workpiece often is moved between drilling operations to produce a pattern of drilled holes in the workpiece. This requires repetitive set-up, layout and fastening of the workpiece.
To facilitate such positioning and fastening, various types of indexing and layout jigs and clamping mechanisms have been used. Examples of such drilling jigs and set-up tools are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,273,954, entitled Drill Jig; 2,602,238, entitled Boring Jig or Drill Guide; 3,775,857, entitled Set-up Tool; and 4,137,003, entitled Drill Jig. While the devices disclosed in these patents may be useful for the production of complicated drilling patterns, they are cumbersome for simple patterns and repetitive drilling operations using a drill press.
Other known devices used for such tasks are drill press vices typified by Dayton drill press vice No. 3W761 and 3W766. These drill press vices, however, by nature are relatively heavy, thus making set-up somewhat more difficult. Also, because these drill press vices are not fixed to any point or axis common to the drill press assembly, positioning with respect to the drill bit requires external measurement. Such measurement and placement may be time-consuming, and may introduce errors into the drilling operation.